U.S. President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed Predator drones in Libya, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

Gates told CNN the unmanned Predators would allow for "some precision capability" against the forces of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and will offer a "modest contribution" to NATO efforts to support Libyan rebels.

NATO, meanwhile, has signaled it may ramp up air strikes on Gadhafi's regime. NATO issued a new warning to Libyan civilians to stay away from military areas - foreshadowing plans for attacks on targets seen as strategically significant in stopping the government's attacks against civilians, according to a NATO military official.

Libyan rebels had recently complained that NATO was not being aggressive enough to protect civilians from Gadhafi's forces.

Planes and missiles from a coalition including the United States, the United Kingdom and France began attacking Libyan air-defense targets March 19 in part to establish a no-fly zone. It was authorized by a U.N. Security Council resolution, which approved military action –short of occupation - to prevent Gadhafi's forces from attacking civilians and cities.

The intervention came after a Libyan uprising, which began in mid-February after clashes between government forces and protesters. Opposition forces are seeking the ouster of Gadhafi, who has ruled for nearly 42 years.

soundoff(358 Responses)

Henry

Why we have to spend our money & national resources to help someone not friendly and could be enemy with USA? The best is leave them alone. If Obama wants to interfere then please find and support someone who is PRO-AMERICAN. Don't they called this national interest?

The drones and unmanned aircraft are obviously the wave of the future. We need to build about 10,000 of those things, and use them exclusively in these types of combat. Send the drones in first, save money, and take our pilots out of harm's way. I applaud the use of drones. Send them to Syria and Iran too.

Who are the rebels, whose funding and supporting them, where are they getting their weapons from, who are their leaders and what is their background; are they socialists, communists or Islamic extremists, what's their plan when the revolution is over, what type of government will they install, will it be friendly to the US, and why is Obama committing our military lives and taxpayers' money to support them?

Until these questions are answered, I hope Qadhafi remains in power – at least we know what to expect.

Admiral Mike Mullen (on Libya): "It's become a much more difficult fight"
Obama: "Send in the drones".
Reality:
It will be days not weeks, oops
It will be weeks not months, oops
It will be months not years, oops
It's another quagmire, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Why are we even in Lybia? Why are we backing France of all countries? Did they help us in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? No I don't believe they did. Why are people supporting Obama going into Lybia but all they did was slam Bush for going into Iraq? We had more business being in Iraq than we have in Lybia. Lybia is in a civil war. Suddam Hussein was torturing and killing his own people for years. If they openly criticized Saddam they or their family members would be tortured or killed. The Iraq people couldn't hold public protests to the government and if they did they didn't have the weapon to defend themselves. If you ask me Saddam was no different than Hitler except Suddam is killing his own people. Weren't Germans tortured and killed if they didn't support Hitler? So now that Syria is at civil war are we going into Syria. We can't save every country that is at civil war. If we keep going into Middle East countries we will end up fighting everyone of them. The other thing is we are not being attacked by Lybia or Syria. We went into Iraq

Why are we even in Lybia? Why are we backing France of all countries? Did they help us in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? No I don't believe they did. Why are people supporting Obama going into Lybia but all they did was slam Bush for going into Iraq? We had more business being in Iraq than we have in Lybia. Personally, I think we should have brought down Saddam Hussein a long time ago. Lybia is in a civil war. Suddam Hussein was torturing and killing his own people for years. If they openly criticized Saddam they or their family members would be tortured or killed. The Iraq people couldn't publicly protest the government and if they did they didn't have access to weapons to defend themselves. If you ask me Saddam was no different than Hitler except Suddam was killing his own people. Weren't Germans tortured and killed if they didn't support Hitler? So now that Syria is at civil war are we going into Syria? We can't save every country that is at civil war. If we keep going into Middle East countries we will end up fighting everyone of them. The other thing is we are not being attacked by Lybia or Syria. We went into Iraq because Suddam continually decieved the UN and wouldn't cooperate with the UN about having weapons of mass destruction. So again, why are we in Lybia?

About This Blog

This blog â€“ This Just In â€“ will no longer be updated. Looking for the freshest news from CNN? Go to our ever-popular CNN.com homepage on your desktop or your mobile device, and join the party at @cnnbrk, the world's most-followed account for news.